Ethan Hawke's Oscar Brawl with Will Smith | Late Night with Conan O’Brien

0:01 [applause]

0:01 Thanks for being here.

0:02 Well, thanks.

0:03 It's great to be here.

0:04 You know, it's funny.

0:05 We have a lot to talk about.

0:07 Yes, we do.

0:08 But the first thing I wanted to ask you about is I know I think

0:11 you were on the show once and we were actually talking about Lord of the Rings,

0:13 how you were a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings books, the Tolkien books.

0:18 And apparently then I I don't know if it was in the paper

0:21 or people just noticed it that at the premiere for Lord of the Rings,

0:24 you went and you were shouting throughout the whole movie.

0:27 Is that true?

0:29 Yeah.

0:31 I uh Like what were you what were you what were you shouting?

0:32 Like what were you what were you doing?

0:34 I was shouting Gandalf for president, Frodo lives.

0:38 Uh you know, I for some reason I grew up on these books.

0:41 I read them about 10,000 times.

0:42 I mean I really I carried them in my knapsack all through high school.

0:45 And so I felt like I'd been waiting to see that movie for 20 years.

0:48 And when I got to the Ziegfeld that night, I couldn't contain myself.

0:51 There were the you know,

0:52 the actors in the movie and it was about to start and I You know,

0:57 my wife refused to come with me because she knew she knew how keyed up I was.

1:01 She's I [laughter] To be honest, I don't really uh you know,

1:04 for my own premieres or anything like that, I don't really think about them.

1:06 I couldn't decide what to wear that night.

1:08 I was so excited.

1:10 And no nobody cared whether I was there or not,

1:11 but I really like like Were you dressed as a wizard or something like that?

1:16 [laughter] I wanted to.

1:16 I actually like wore this whole like cowboy motif thing and then uh

1:20 my wife said I looked like a a 4-year-old in Underroos and uh [laughter]

1:25 I don't know why I really was excited.

1:27 It's probably better that that Uma didn't come with you cuz you don't

1:30 really want a woman with you when you're there going like Gandalf rules.

1:35 Watch out, Frodo.

1:38 [laughter] I'll see you in the depths of Mordor.

1:40 You know, It's the kind of thing where

1:41 attractive women tend to go like, "Yeah, all right."

1:44 it brings out the geek in everybody, you know.

1:46 Yeah.

1:46 Yeah.

1:47 Now, okay, so then you went to a very important function,

1:49 nominated for an Oscar.

1:51 You go.

1:52 I mean, it's Did you have that same level of crazy

1:55 excitement when you went when you went to the Oscars?

1:58 I was I was a little uh I was actually worried about that because uh you know,

2:04 if let's let's just say that you did win, right?

2:06 Which is a possibility, right?

2:07 If you're going to be there.

2:08 I would win, no.

2:09 That you would [laughter] I I still I thought you might pull it out.

2:13 Thank you.

2:14 Yeah.

2:14 And watching you out there And that monologue, yeah.

2:16 I I think I showed a range and a depth

2:18 that uh I got to tell you it was exciting.

2:21 It was exciting to be backstage [laughter] just being

2:23 a part of being a part of this show.

2:24 I'm about to hit you.

2:27 I'll have a sip of water.

2:28 [laughter] Yeah.

2:29 Yeah.

2:29 Yeah.

2:29 That's not water.

2:31 Uh That's Zima.

2:34 Uh [laughter]

2:36 So You know, I got worried.

2:37 You know, sometimes everybody thinks this is

2:39 a great thing to win an Academy Award,

2:40 but you know, you can blow your whole career.

2:43 If you get up there and and somehow do the wrong thing.

2:46 Yeah, just make a fool out of yourself.

2:47 You know, I don't know like I just worry I'd get up there and say it.

2:50 You know, I usually think these things are totally crap,

2:52 you know, but uh No, that I won, I guess they're cool.

2:55 Uh [laughter] Sure glad the rest of you didn't win.

2:58 You know, you know, you can really uh I would love it.

3:00 I mean, I'm always waiting for someone to get up and just sort of like,

3:04 you know, like cut loose and destroy their career in that moment.

3:07 I think it'd be entertaining for the rest of us.

3:08 worried that would be me.

3:10 Right.

3:10 Right.

3:11 Now, how were you in the when the moment when the when the moment comes,

3:14 were you were you really cool?

3:16 thing because [clears throat]

3:17 to be honest, it never really hit me that I was

3:18 nominated for an Oscar until you're sitting there and you see all

3:21 the little boxes of the nominees waiting to find out and you're

3:25 really like I always make fun of people when I watch the Oscars.

3:28 Oh, look at him.

3:29 Look Oh, you can tell he's, you know, and then there I was.

3:32 And all of a sudden it hit me.

3:34 It's it's kind of And then all of a sudden I wanted to win.

3:36 I never really wanted to win, but then I wanted to give a speech.

3:39 And then you got to pretend like you're not disappointed.

3:41 Right.

3:41 You know.

3:42 And some people overcompensate.

3:43 They're like

3:46 [laughter]

3:46 I lost.

3:48 You know, and that looks bad, too.

3:51 That looks strange.

3:51 no way to play it off.

3:52 There really isn't.

3:53 this rumor going around.

3:56 Some people noticed that it looks like you have a shiner

3:58 on your on your cheek and eye during the Oscar ceremonies.

4:02 And people There was this rumor going around that spread like

4:05 wildfire that you had gotten into a fist fight with Will Smith.

4:08 Do we have this There's a There's a picture of you there with what looks like

4:12 a shine there And what's weird is during

4:18 the Oscars there was a blinking yellow arrow.

4:20 Yeah.

4:20 I thought that was weird.

4:22 That was not called for.

4:23 What what what was How did First of all,

4:25 what was that thing what was that bruise?

4:27 lipstick, okay?

4:28 I mean, you know, I mean I I think that was right after

4:30 Somebody's You should know whose lipstick that is.

4:33 Will Smith kissed me, all right?

4:36 [laughter]

4:36 No, I I I really have no idea.

4:37 You know, it was right after Denzel won and it

4:39 was either my wife's lipstick or Denzel's wife's lipstick.

4:43 And uh And then somehow this and because Will Smith wasn't there,

4:47 he had to leave the ceremony early cuz his daughter was sick, actually.

4:50 And I think there'd been too much racial harmony that evening.

4:53 Right.

4:53 So somehow like it to make up.

4:54 But who even comes up with this?

4:56 I mean, someone's looking at it and go like, "That looks kind of like a bruise.

4:58 I bet he had a a kung fu fight with Will Smith.

5:02 Let's spread that on the net." I mean, where do people come up with this stuff?

5:05 know, to be honest is you'd think that we maybe had a mock fight or something.

5:08 I really didn't even see the guy except

5:09 once during the evening he offered me some shrimp.

5:12 Right.

5:12 don't know how that turns into a fist fight, but shrimp is rather violent.

5:15 "I don't eat shrimp." Knocked it out of his hand.

5:18 He hit you.

5:19 That's what happened.

5:20 I saw it.

5:21 I saw the whole thing.

5:24 [cheering and applause]

5:24 All right, we should uh We should talk about this latest project, Chelsea Walls.

5:29 This is something it's it's a it's an unusual film.

5:32 Yeah, it's it really started as kind of an experiment.

5:34 I mean, it's uh uh it's a movie that takes place in the Chelsea Hotel

5:38 through the course of a day and it kind of it's really more of a collage.

5:42 Kind of just captures these little moments of people's lives and kind

5:45 of And it's sort of a stream of consciousness quality to some of it.

5:48 Uh the the look of it is also I think kind of neat.

5:51 It's it's not it doesn't look like it was done on traditional film, right?

5:54 Is this digital video?

5:56 We shot it on digital video and then blew it up to film and we did

5:58 all this kind of weird color correction stuff

6:00 to it and uh I'm really proud of that.

6:02 I think it looks really beautiful.

6:03 We have a clip here.

6:04 Do we need to know anything in particular or just let it flow?

6:07 Let it flow, baby.

6:08 Let it [laughter] Okay.

6:10 And I think it's Kris Kristofferson and Uma and he's plays

6:13 this kind of drunk writer in the hotel who's hitting on my wife.

6:17 Okay.

6:17 Let's take a look at this clip from Chelsea Walls.

6:20 Let me ask you something.

6:23 Have you ever been drunk?

6:25 Me?

6:28 Of course.

6:32 Have you [music] ever been drunk?

6:36 Honey, you just asked me that.

6:41 I mean, have you ever been in love?

6:48 It's none of your business.

6:52 Of course I have.

6:56 I didn't recognize I didn't recognize your wife when I first saw her.

6:59 Yeah, she's got this little wig on and all that.

7:01 Yeah.

7:02 Uh Chelsea Walls opens Friday in select

7:05 cities and then uh probably expands from there.

7:08 Yeah, exactly.

7:08 Yeah, so cool to have you here.

7:09 Thanks very much.

7:10 It's always nice having you on the show.

7:13 [cheering] He's a good guy.

7:12 Ethan Hawke, everyone.